Great Balls of Fire! ** (1989, Dennis Quaid, Winona Ryder, Alec Baldwin, John Doe) – Classic Movie Review 9507

Goodness, gracious! It’s Dennis Quaid giving an amusing caricature of a performance as legendary Fifties rocker Jerry Lee Lewis, in the 1989 stylised comic-book biopic Great Balls of Fire!, which reunites Dennis Quaid with Jim McBride, the director of The Big Easy.

Twice-married hellraiser Jerry Lee is out to snatch Elvis’s crown, but he has his sights set on his underage second cousin (Winona Ryder) who idolises him, and when they wed in secret and head for England, the great British public is scandalised.

The overacting cast (including Alec Baldwin as evangelist Jimmy Swaggart) is balanced by Ryder’s more down-to-earth portrayal of a girl out of her depth, and the film, though undistinguished, is always watchable and enjoyable.

Also in the cast are John Doe, Joe Bob Briggs, Stephen Tobolowsky, Lisa Blount, Trey Wilson, Lisa Jane Persky, Mojo Nixon, Joshua Sheffield, Steve Allen (Himself), Jimmie Vaughan, David Ferguson, Robert Lesser and Peter Cook.

Great Balls of Fire! Is directed by Jim McBride, runs 105 minutes, is made by Orion is released by Rank (UK), is written by Jack Baran and Jim McBride, based on the book by Myra Lewis and Murray Silver Jr, shot by Affonso Beato, produced by Adam Fields and designed by David Nichols.

Jerry Lee Lewis returned to music when he entered a Nashville recording studio late January 2020. He had not played music since February 2019 when he suffered a serious stroke. He said: ‘I thought I would never play again’.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9507

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